I have an HP 1.6 GHz machine running on windows XP sp1. IT has 128 Mb of ram and an ATI rage pro card with 32 MB ram.

Around two months ago a peculiar thing happened, while I was in the middle of my work the computer screen went blank the hard disk went off and the fans went off too, BUT the CPU light remained on. There were three beeps in decreasing pitch and then 8 beeps with alternating high and low tones. This whole pattern was repeated again.

On switching the CPU off and then putting it on again the systrem booted up fine and with no problems. There were no entries about this in any of the event logs ( application error logs or system error logs )

My PC technician checked the system and said that it was due to dust on the contacts of ATI video card. He reseated the card after cleaning the contacts.

The system worked fine for two months after that. Today the system was in hibernation and When I tried to activate it the same thing happened. After putting it off ( by pressing the CPU on /off switch ) the things works fine again.

It is pertinent to note that I cleaned the CPU cabinet yesterday with a air blower.

What I want to know is whether the PC technician got it right. It obviously is a hardware problem. But Do you think it could be something more sinister than just dust. I live in an area where there is lots of construction work going on so I do admit there is dust around the place.

Can anyone assure me that it isn't a motherboard or Memory card problem?

It could be that your CPU/Graphic card over heats. Dust does play a big role in most pc crashing.But then again the ram could have a bad block.
Try putting your pc in a clean room and clean it out a bit, then use a memory testing app such as